(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printer, a printing method, and a non-transitory computer readable medium.
(ii) Related Art
In the case of printing plural copies of a document, if a memory built in a printer has a sufficiently large capacity, a printer driver of a client apparatus (for example, a personal computer) may transmit print data of the document and information representing the number of copies to the printer. The printer holds the received print data in the built-in memory and repeatedly performs a process on the print data the same number of times as the number of copies, so as to print the copies of the document. If the amount of print data of the document is larger than the capacity of the built-in memory of the printer, this method is not employed. In this case, the printer driver repeatedly transmits the print data to the printer the same number of times as the number of copies, so as to print the copies of the document.
Many printers have a function of sorting a printout in units of copies or jobs. An example of a widely used sorting function is a function of performing sorting by shifting a paper output tray right and left in units of copies or jobs. Also, some of compact printers that do not have a mechanism of shifting a paper output tray have a function of performing sorting in units of copies by changing the orientation of paper for a printout to portrait or landscape in units of copies.
In the case of repeatedly transmitting print data the same number of times as the number of copies from the printer driver to the printer and in the case of sorting a print result in units of copies, it is necessary for the printer to detect a separator of each copy of the print data that is continuously transmitted thereto.